1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to data communications.
2. Description of the Background Art
Timestamping protocols, such as the IEEE-1588 standard, for example, may be used to synchronize clocks across a data network to very high precision. However, the limit of the synchronization accuracy depends on the accuracy of the timestamps placed on packets entering and leaving the network port.
Hence, in order to generate the timestamps, it is necessary to estimate the latency of circuit structures in the data path within the transceiver. For high-speed transceiver channels, estimating the latency with sufficient accuracy for timestamping packets under a protocol such as IEEE-1588 is a challenging task.